New Photgraphs

Paul Perdue, a native of Pine Bluff and an avid Pine Bluff historian, has collected many Pine Bluff related photographs. Now he resides in Dallas, Tx. He has thousands of images in his Facebook albums; if you are on Facebook, feel free to view them at this link.He has graciously shared some of those photos with me for this website. They can be found here, here, here, here and here as well there are links in "*NEW* Pictures" in the sidebar.

Nearest Cities

Pine Bluff is:

44 miles (71 km) from Little Rock, Ark.

147 Miles (237 km) from Memphis, Tn.

152 miles(245 km) from Texarkana, Ark.

386 miles(621 km) from St. Louis, Mo.

Origins of Pine Bluff

In 1541, Europeans first settled in what is now known as the state of Arkansas. The territory was acquired by America from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Settlers had moved to higher ground, a bluff, after a flood, and there were many tall pine trees on the bluff, hence the name 'Pine Bluff'.In 1873 a small fort, the Arkansas Post, was built at the mouth of the Arkansas River. River transportation was instrumental in the growth of the town as roads were very primitive.

It is thought a man named Wolf was the first Jew living in the town in 1840 but he did not appear on the 1850 Census. During the 1850s, Jewish men paid poll taxes, property taxes and appeared on land records. See history of the Pine Bluff Jewish community here, rabbis here and the congregation's Centennial celebration at this link.

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